I thought John was classified under reveal? Am I just an idiot?
Reveal typically means every player sees the cards. With John only you get to see the cards. As to your second question, well...I shall withhold judgment.
A search card allows you to look at the cards in a deck, artifact pile, or a player’s hand. Searching implies only you see the targeted card(s). Reveal means that all players see the targeted card(s).
So no, John would not be a reveal ability, but a search ability.